This invention relates to a system that provides Call Waiting notification when a phone line is currently being used by a computer modem.
Many residential Internet users only have one phone line into their homes. That one phone line is used for voice calls and modem based Internet calls. Frequently users are torn between logging onto the Internet via their computer modems or waiting for an expected phone call. Telephone companies provide a service called Call Waiting that notifies users of an incoming call while talking to a first caller. Call Waiting prevents a user that only has one phone line from missing important calls.
The Call Waiting service sends a signal on the phone line to notify the user of the incoming call. The user then has the option to either take the incoming call and put the current call on hold or to ignore the incoming call. An advanced version of this service is called Call Waiting-Caller ID. Call Waiting-Caller ID sends an alerting signal when a second call is coming in and also displays on a special Caller ID device, the name and number of the incoming caller.
When a modem is currently in use on the phone line, the user cannot hear the Call Waiting tone and therefore is not notified of the incoming call. Products have been developed that sense a Call Waiting tone from a central office switch when the phone line is currently being used for modem communications. A visual or audible indicator is then used to notify the user of the incoming call. These products however do not work with Call Waiting-Caller ID.
Accordingly, a need remains for a notification system that works in a Call Waiting-Caller ID environment to provide notification of incoming calls when the phone line is currently being used by a computer modem.